Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

Noted environmentalist R K Pachauri has insisted the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a 'very rapid speed'. However, he did not refer to his earlier assertion -- that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 -- for which he had come under sharp attack from the government and others.

Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

"Glaciers are melting at a very rapid speed," Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said when asked if he still maintains that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

Despite the fact that the issue is "serious", he said "little concern has been shown by the government so far to address the issue of melting of Himalayan glaciers."

Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

"Little concern has been shown by the government over the recession of the Himalayan glaciers which has wide environmental ramifications for the South Asian nations," Pachauri, Director General of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) added.

Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that although Himalayan glaciers "are indeed receding and the rate is cause for great concern, the forecast that the glaciers could disappear by 2035 was not based on an iota of scientific evidence."